On Sunday, the Popular Party tried to capitalize on citizens’ unrest with the coalition government and the Socialist Workers’ Party over recent corruption scandals with a march in central Madrid attended by tens of thousands of people. Far from offering an attractive and realistic alternative capable of connecting with a hypothetical majority eager for political change, the PP has allegedly sparked widespread distress in Spain with rhetoric full of exaggerations that damage its credentials as a ruling party.
This Sunday was the seventh demonstration called by the People’s Party against the government of Pedro Sanchez. The strategy of mobilizing masses in the streets began in September 2023 during the amnesty negotiations in which Sánchez gained the support of the Catalan independence movement for his inauguration. It has been more than two years and the government does not seem to be under pressure to end the legislature, despite the fact that Spain, according to Alberto Nunez Viejo, cannot hold out “not one more day.” These types of statements are disconnected from the daily lives of citizens.
The People’s Party’s language against the government became more intense as the legislature advanced. On Sunday, Figo implied that Sánchez should go to prison for corruption in his party, something that has so far only been heard from Vox. The President of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, confirmed that “ETA is preparing for its attack on the Basque Country and Navarre.” Díaz Ayuso did not have the courtesy to explain to young voters what ETA was. He referred to the government as a “corruption mafia trying to prevent political circulation.” Under this strategy of tension, the arguments of the Spanish right turn into bad talk and a competition for clicks, not votes.
There is no shortage of reasons for unrest against the PSOE, which has been dogged by a major corruption scandal in its leadership that has already sent two of the organisation’s former secretaries to prison, one of whom was also a former minister. The government is showing signs of increasing difficulties moving forward as two of the parliamentary majority parties it supports, Gantz and Podemos, begin to move away from it. The People’s Party has too much institutional power to strongly condemn it: with the majority group in Congress, with the absolute majority in the Senate, and with the presidential rostrum in 11 autonomous regions. In short, with the power democratically given to it by citizens. This is where his service to the institutions is measured, not on the streets, where he is sometimes indistinguishable from the far-right Vox party.
Demanding elections every day is not a political strategy. The Constitution gives the Prime Minister the power to dissolve Parliament. This means that the system is designed so that he is the one to use those political assets as he sees fit. The People’s Party is asking Sánchez to do its work for it, rather than using the democratic tools at its disposal. The composition of Parliament is what it is and was decided by voters, not Sánchez. The People’s Party is the majority group in Congress. The only way to change the government in the short term is to introduce a motion of no confidence for which it does not have the necessary votes. If you want to achieve these goals, imitating the far-right’s strategy of street incitement and apocalyptic exaggerations runs in the opposite direction of that goal, destroying its own credentials along the way.